156 



favored with extraordinary immunity from suffering. The weather was 

 uniformly mild and free from hard storms. The rains were timely and 

 gentle, and pasturage was abundant. 



Almost the only drawbacks to the health and thrift of cattle and 

 sheep, in any i^art of the country, have been the want of projjcr shelter, 

 care, and feed. Even in sections where, from the combined ravages of 

 droughts, chinch-bugs, and grasshoppers, scarcity of feed has been great- 

 est, and this aggravated by cold of extraordinary intensity and duration, 

 I)recautiou iu husbanding resources in hand, and in seasonably providing 

 such others as could be made available either for increasing or saving 

 feed, has resulted in bringing stock through in better condition thauiu 

 previous milder winters with abundant feed, under indifferent treatment. 

 In Kansas, cattle and sheep are reported in better condition in Leaven- 

 worth and Woodson Counties, because, feed being short, special precau- 

 tion was taken beforehand to prepare for this exigency. In Labette the 

 condition is 25 per cent, better than in the spring of 1874, because " the 

 farmers have made the discovery that other agencies besides feed are 

 requiredto keep stock in good condition. He who allows his stock to be fed 

 in an open and bleak field, without any shelter, is surprised to find that 

 his feed does not go very far, and that his stock, with an abundance to 

 eat, are always poor and weak in the spring, and have a dull, rough, 

 weather-worn look. The sad lessons of past years and the scarcity of 

 feed in the autumn caused the farmers to prepare good shelter for their 

 stock, and to give them unusual care by regular feeding, watering, salt- 

 ing, and exercise." In Caledonia and Lamoille, in Northern Vermont, 

 under one of the severest winters known, cattle and sheep arein excellent 

 condition, " owing, largely, to the better housing, feeding, and care." For 

 a like reason, in Berkshire, among the mountainsin Western Massachu- 

 setts, " some cattle with ordinary keeping are fit for beef." Similar re- 

 ports come from representative localities in all sections visited with ex- 

 traordinary cold, scarcity, or both. 



Eeturns from the Southern States afford not a few indications that 

 the old practice of making no antecedent preparation for stock in inclem- 

 ent winter-weather is being slowly, but in an annually-increasing ratio, 

 superseded by the more humane and far more profitable economy of 

 suitable protection from cold, storms, and starv^ation. In Maryland, bet- 

 ter shelter and feeding are becoming popular. In North Carolina, cattle 

 and sheep are beginning to receive better shelter and care, and they 

 " show the beneficial results very plainly." In contrast with the losses, 

 and •' the pitiable existence " of the surviving, among those left to search 

 out their own food and shelter, " the superior condition of the few cattle 

 and sheep that have been well sheltered attests the sound economy of 

 that treatment." In Clayton, Georgia, cattle and sheep are in improved 

 condition, with fewer losses than formerly, " owing to the fact that farm- 

 ers are making less cotton and more grain ;" and iu Troup, the condition 

 is better than for years, and the losses 50 per cent, less, because of in- 

 creased production of forage and better protection in cold weather. 

 Among the profitable results is specified " not so many naked sheep, and 

 consequently more wool." The return from Kaufman, Texas, furnishes 

 this contrast between the results of care and neglect ; while our re- 

 porter, whose stock was well provided for, lost only 1 per cent., in the 

 county about 25 per cent, died, " owing to the severity of the winter and 

 the neglect of farmers to provide the hay necessary to carry them 

 through." From Arkansas, where the relative condition of cattle is 

 worse than in any other State, and where losses from exposure and star- 

 vation have been extensive, Van Buren reports that, though the winter 



I 



